To pay or not to pay. That’s the key question for many companies when it comes to dividends. Although 420 companies in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index pay regular cash dividends, 80 businesses don’t. And the list of non-payers includes many profitable and growing firms, from Biogen (symbol BIIB, $318.78) to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, $142.74). Stocks of companies that initiate dividends tend to fare well. Shares of dividend payers rise an average of 15% in the 12 months following the announcement of the initial disbursement, says David Park, an analyst with Santa Barbara Asset Management, in Los Angeles. These stocks also beat their sector by an average of six percentage points in that first year, and they outperform the market in the second and third years after a dividend launch.
3 Future Dividend Payers to Buy Now - One notable tech holdout is Google (GOOGL, $657.50), though that could change. One that remains is Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY, $65.23), another firm that looks as if it could initiate a dividend without much stress. Express Scripts (ESRX, $90.07) also looks like a good candidate to pay a dividend eventually.